For many competitive soccer players still playing on competitive SCYSL and Santa Clara Sporting club teams, there is always a tricky transition time period during the month of November when high school soccer tryouts start-up.

High school sports are governed by a sanctioning body called CIF. There used to be a rule allowing soccer players to participate in high school soccer and compete on another soccer team if the non-high school soccer competition had less than 50% of the required 11 players on the field. But the CIF changed that rule two years ago and now there is no outside competition allowed in the same sport during the school/league season.

Soccer players and soccer coaches need to manage the transition. Basically, once the student-athlete plays a scrimmage or league game in high school, he/she cannot go back to club soccer, then return to high school soccer. If a player and coach are caught violating the rule, the high school team will forfeit all points earned in pre-season and league games, and the player cannot play high schhool soccer for the rest of the season.